2001

Seven years after The Chronic, Dr. Dre came back with a cover of almost nothing. It is pitch black, with his name in small green letters at the top and, in the bottom corner, the number 2001 beside a single green cannabis leaf.

The leaf is a joke about the album's name. Dre first planned to call it Chronic 2000, then Chronic 2001: No Seeds, until a trademark dispute over The Chronic name forced a change. The final title dropped the word, and the leaf next to "2001" quietly kept it. The clean edition removes the leaf and adds a white "CENSORED VERSION" stamp. The liner notes credit art direction and design to Jason Clark, with the collage concept by Charis Henry, collage photography by Richard "Segal" Huredia and photography by Stan Musilik and Donn Thompson.

2001 was released on 16 November 1999 and became one of the best-selling rap albums ever, with "Still D.R.E." and "Forgot About Dre" proving that Dre and his new protégé Eminem could still set the sound of the West Coast.